Vatican releases details of papal trip to Holy Land

Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
|
Apr. 8, 2009

VATICAN CITY -- On his first trip to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict XVI will meet with Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders, stop at the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and visit a refugee camp in Bethlehem, West Bank, the Vatican said.

The May 8-15 visit will take the pope to holy sites in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. The schedule, published March 26, said the pope would visit the new King Hussein Mosque in Amman, Jordan, stop at Jesus' baptism site at the Jordan River, and make a pilgrimage to Mount Nebo, where Moses once looked out at the Promised Land.

The pope's program calls for encounters with Israeli political leaders, Christian leaders, Jerusalem's most prominent rabbis and the city's leading Muslim cleric, the grand mufti.

Pope Benedict also will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and celebrate public Masses in Amman, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth, Israel.

Here is the detailed itinerary as released by the Vatican. All times are local, with Eastern Daylight Time in parentheses.

9:15 a.m. (2:15 a.m.) Visit to the Memorial Church of Moses at Mount Nebo. Speech by pope.

10:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m.) Pope blesses the cornerstone of the Latin Patriarchate's University of Madaba. Speech by pope.

11:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m.) Visit to the Hashemite Museum and the King Hussein Mosque in Amman.

11:45 a.m. (4:45 a.m.) Meeting with Muslim leaders, diplomats and rectors of the University of Jordan outside the mosque. Speech by pope.

5:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m.) Celebration of evening prayer in the Melkite Cathedral of St. George in Amman, attended by priests, men and women religious, seminarians and members of church movements. Speech by pope.

4:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m.) Pope greets religious leaders of Galilee in the auditorium of the Basilica of the Annunciation. Speech by pope.

5 p.m. (10 a.m.) Visit to the Grotto of the Annunciation.

5:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m.) Celebration of evening prayer in the upper Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth attended by bishops, priests, men and women religious, seminarians, members of church movements and pastoral workers of Galilee. Speech by pope.